Backroom Negotiations Intensify Over a Deal To Release More Israelis Held by the Enemy, as Netanyahu Vows To Finish the Fight

While backroom negotiations intensify over a new deal to release hostages held in Gaza, tensions grow in Israel between advocates of the abductees and those who fear a growing number of troop casualties in the war against Hamas. That debate was sharpened last week when Israeli troops mistakenly killed three hostages who broke free of their abductors. Some Israelis say the soldiers acted carelessly, while others argue the tragic incident occurred in a complex war conditions, where the men needed to protect themselves. Bridging the difference was the mother of one of the hostages killed in the incident. “I love you and I hug you,” Iris Haim told the soldiers who shot her son. Her words disclose a spirit and understanding that will inspire Israelis for generations to come.Meanwhile, Hamas’s leader, Ismail Haniyeh, arrived at Cairo Wednesday for talks about a possible new deal. It reportedly could entail the release of several dozen hostages. In return, Israel would temporarily pause fighting and release a large number of prisoners, including some who were convicted of deadly terrorist acts. America is “pushing,” but a deal is not expected soon, President Biden told reporters Wednesday. In a year-end press conference, Secretary Blinken added, “Israel has been very clear, including as recently as today, that it would welcome returning to a pause and returning to a release of hostages. The problem was, and remains, Hamas.” Hamas rejects any negotiations “while under fire,” one of its senior officials, Basem Naim, told the Washington Post. While the terrorist organization smells victory in the form of an ending to the war, Israel is adamant that it refuses to return to the pre-October 7 status quo. “We will continue this war to the end,” Prime Minister Netanyahu reiterated in a video statement Wednesday. The war will continue until achieving its goals: “eliminating Hamas, freeing our hostages, and removing the threat from Gaza,” he said. “All Hamas terrorists, from first to last, are targeted for death. You have two possibilities: surrender or die.”Mr. Netanyahu, though, evaded the issue of a temporary pause to release hostages. Widely leaked to the press, that option is being criticized by some Israelis who say that even a week-long cessation of fighting would allow Hamas to regroup, resulting in a large number of casualties among IDF troops. In recent days the rocket attacks from Gaza against communities as far away as Tel Aviv have ebbed as the IDF systematically destroys the Strip’s launchers, tunnels, and rocket factories. “Our duty is to dismantle that infrastructure, but also to ensure that it won’t be reassembled in the future,” the IDF spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, told reporters. That goal could be harmed with a pause in the fighting, during which Hamas revives its arsenal and gets some breathing room to recoup military capabilities. It could also prepare booby traps and rearm in anticipation of the resumption of the fighting, endangering IDF troops.Soldiers’ deaths are a sensitive issue in a country where degrees of separation are much smaller than six, and where everybody knows someone serving in Gaza as part of the “people’s army.” Then again, the release of 130 Israeli civilians and soldiers held hostage is the main cause advocated at Tel Aviv’s “hostage square.”There, families and friends of the abductees maintain a constant presence, saying that release of prisoners is one of the top tenets of the Israeli and Jewish ethos. Troops in Gaza were not adequately briefed about the possibility that hostages could be caught up in the battle, Avi Shafriz, whose son, Alon, was among the three hostages killed during last Friday’s friendly fire incident, says. “Otherwise, all soldiers would have carried with them pictures of abductees,” he said. New details are emerging about the tragic incident. The three abductees, led by Alon Shafriz, a veteran of an elite army unit, wandered in Gaza for five days after an Israeli unit killed their abductors. A different unit then found and killed them, erroneously believing they were Hamas fighters. The soldiers were in an area where many comrades had been killed in days of intense fighting and where Hamas fighters in civilian clothes laid numerous traps, including Hebrew-speaking dolls designed to lure them into explosive-laden areas. “To the soldiers of the 7828 battalion, I love and hug you from afar,” Mrs. Haim, whose son, Yotam, was one of the killed hostages, said in a video message recorded while she was sitting Shiva, mourning her son. “I want you to know, this is not your fault, this is on Hamas, god curse them,” she said, encouraging the troops to do everything they can to defend themselves. “As much as this hurts, I want you to know that none of us is judging you,” Mrs. Haim said. She then invited the Israeli soldiers who killed her son to visit her at home once they got out of Gaza.

Backroom Negotiations Intensify Over a Deal To Release More Israelis Held by the Enemy, as Netanyahu Vows To Finish the Fight

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